Darmin Nasution new Bapepam chief

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Minister of Finance Yusuf Anwar officially installed Darmin Nasution as the new chairman of the Capital Market Supervisory Agency (Bapepam) on Tuesday.

Darmin will also remain in his current post as the finance ministry's director general for financial institutions, until the ministry completes the planned integration of the directorate general with Bapepam.

Darmin -- who has been the Bapepam acting chairman since last November -- takes over from Herwidayatmo, who is now an executive director of the World Bank.

Yusuf also appointed J.B. Kristiadi -- a former finance ministry official and current secretary at the Ministry of Communications and Information -- as the finance ministry's new secretary-general, replacing Agus Haryanto, who will become the new executive director of the Asian Development Bank.

In a speech, Yusuf said he expected Darmin to improve the agency's performance, which in turn would improve investor confidence in the stock market.

"Besides being the market watchdog, Bapepam should also be an advocate and a partner for investors," he said. "Bapepam must be market friendly, protecting the interests of investors from financial fraud."

Darmin said his top goal at the agency would be to achieve continuous improvement in Bapepam's programs and record.

"The country's stock market is already well regulated and dynamic -- as well as sensitive -- according to its own terms, so what it needs is further improvement, not hasty policies," he said. "And what I mean by improvement is providing what the market needs, which is transparency and fairness for all investors."

Darmin received a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Indonesia in Jakarta in 1976, and earned his doctorate from the University Paris I Sorbonne in 1986.

Bapepam is a state agency under the finance ministry that regulates and oversees the country's capital market. It also investigates market irregularities and has the power to impose fines.